Jan-Oct, 2011 tourist arrivals surpassed arrivals in 2010:

Sri Lanka, the favoured tourist destination

Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka from January to October this year had surpassed the annual tourist arrivals of 654,476 recorded in 2010.

Accordingly, tourist arrivals in the first ten months of 2011 rose 34.2 percent to 667,569, compared to 497,598 tourist arrivals in the same period last year, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) said.

A 32.8 percent increase in tourist arrivals has been recorded last month in comparison to the corresponding period last year.

SLTDA statistics have also recorded 69,563 tourist arrivals in October this year while the number of arrivals in October 2010 stood at 52,370.

Since the end of the war against terrorism in May 2009, the country has seen increasing tourist arrivals every year for the past two years. The government predicts tourist arrivals to grow by 20 percent and hit a new record of over 780,000 this year.

Sri Lanka launched a new five-year plan under the guidance of the Economic Development Minister to boost tourism in the country. Under this plan, Sri Lanka expects to raise the number of arrivals to 2.5 million and to earn an annual revenue of US$ 2.75 billion by 2016.

The Economic Development Ministry with the private sector has launched a programme to double the hotel room capacity to 45,000 by 2016 over the current 22,745 to accommodate the 2.5 million arrivals by that time. Courtesy PRIU